Claims made by a former OU vice president that the fraternity Sigma Alpha Epsilon is returning to OU have been disputed by OU’s general counsel and the national chapter of the fraternity.
In a press conference Wednesday evening, Jabar Shumate, former vice president for the University Community, said he had been told SAE was being reinstituted on OU’s campus — a claim that was quickly disputed in an OU Public Affairs statement.
SAE’s national chapter told The Daily in an email there was no intention of a return to campus. OU’s General Counsel Anil Gollahalli also said Shumate’s claim was untrue.
“I was asked to go into a May 23 meeting in the general counsel's office where he set up a meeting with his staff and the director of real estate operations for the campus, and asked to bring specifics about my staff, the space that I had occupied in the university community center and the former SAE house, and then told to work with real estate operations to devise a plan for moving your staff this summer while students are away so that the university would not have complications or bad exposure with the move,” Shumate said.
Gollahalli said while the meeting did happen, the content was different than what Shumate said. The meeting was a discussion of the fact that there was a legal dispute between OU and the SAE corporation over ownership of the former house, Gollahalli said. He said he discussed with Shumate ways to prepare for, in case at some point in the future, OU no longer having access to the property.
“At no time did we say ... that (SAE) is coming back. Those discussions aren't made by real estate or the general counsel's office. Those will be happening at the presidential level and the board of regents level,” Gollahalli said. “We have had discussions about (Shumate’s) operations there and what he needs in the short term, long term, other locations that might be suitable, because we're always looking to figure out how do we vacate that property on a longer term basis because it's not part of the core campus.”
Gollahalli said Shumate was forced to resign his position because he misused his state-owned university vehicle over 100 times. Shumate said he believes he was forced to resign from his position because he did not approve of SAE coming back to OU — what he refers to as a “high-tech lynching.”
“When it became apparent that the university didn't want to (be transparent about the return of SAE), then they found a reason to terminate Jabar,” said Lindsey Mulinix, Shumate’s lawyer. “Our position is they decided that they wanted to get rid of them, and they found a reason to do it.”
Gollahalli said he has not been involved in any conversations regarding a potential return of SAE to campus.
“I think there are always probably ongoing discussions with alumni about when that might be appropriate, if it would be appropriate,” Gollahalli said. “I'm not aware of any formal discussion that would set a date certain or that would have even said that they will be allowed back on campus, but I know President Boren has said ... in the past that there may come a time, but that would have to be evaluated in the future. And I think that's still the university's position.”
